What Is ‘Hidden City Ticketing’ and Should You Take Advantage of It?

By Jamie Levi, Feb 21, 2018

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There are a lot of things to take into account when you are booking a flight, and it’s important to consider how you can save money. Whether it’s for business or pleasure, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting on a plane and jet-setting to some new locale. Unfortunately, the ticket buying process can be one of the more chaotic and stressful parts of the vacation process.

Luckily, there are loads of tips these days you can use to help you save money when booking your flights to go away. For instance, things like booking your flight on a Sunday, setting price alerts, and using frequent flier miles are just a few of the great ways of making savings. But there is another way you might not be familiar with – hidden city ticketing.

What is it?

Open your ears and your mind, because we’re about to drop some knowledge on you. Hidden city ticketing is one of the most effective ways of saving money that nobody knows about. It’s perfectly legal and very simple to do. It’s basically where you book a flight to a destination, but actually get off at the layover city (the place you really intend to visit). This is a sneaky, and frankly, awesome, way of getting to a city without having to pay as much.

Why you should do it

Now you know about hidden city ticketing why would you not do it?! You can save a lot of money by using this method, and there are so many excellent advantages. In fact, by using this approach, you will be shocked by how much money you’re going to save. There are even websites out there dedicated to hidden city ticketing so you can do this much more easily. But, before making a habit of it, you should know that there are drawbacks.

Drawbacks

Hidden city ticketing has a lot of positives, but there are also drawbacks as well, and you need to be aware of these. For one thing, regular hidden city ticketing can drive up airfares, not to mention inconveniencing other customers. Another of the major drawbacks is the fact that you won’t be able to check luggage when you use hidden city ticketing. And you will also have to be aware that there are potential re-routing issues as well.

Be discreet

While it’s not essentially illegal, hidden city ticketing is something that airlines are cracking down on. Many of them have regulations in their small print that make hidden city ticketing a violation, and if they catch you, the can punish you by making you pay the full fare, or barring you from the plane. So, if you are going to engage in hidden city ticketing, you need to make sure you do so discreetly.

As you can see, hidden city ticketing is one of the best ways of reducing your airfares, and saving stress in the process. However, there are a lot of drawbacks to taking this path, and there are negatives if you’re going to do this. Just make sure you are careful, and that you do as much as you can to be discreet about it.